1997 Avalon's Battery dies if not driven everyday.

jefeconsopatoke

01-28-2009, 09:55 AM

My 97 Avalon's battery will drain almost completely if it is not driven everyday. Cannot figure it out. Any suggestions?

jdmccright

01-29-2009, 01:40 PM

Two most likely sources are the battery and alternator. How old is the battery? Too old and it won't hold much of a charge. Is the alternator producing a good charging voltage of ~14V? Much below that and it can't keep up with the car's needs. Both are fairly easy to remove and bring to a parts store for them to run a load test.

Barring that, you may have an accessory that is drawing too much current when the engine is off. Shut off the engine, remove the negative battery cable and hook up a multi-meter in series and set it to read mA. Anything over ~50 mA is too much draw. To pin the circuit down, pull each fuse to see where the current is going through...when the current drops off, you found it. Good luck!